Social effects of Industrialisation
Essay
index
The implications of mechanisation
were enormous. Workers were forced to
move from small village communities to be closer to their employment.
Towns began to grow into cities and the face of the United Kingdom
began to change forever. Some employers built houses beside the
factories for their workers – indeed Matthew
Boulton’s Soho Foundry
incorporated employee housing in its wings so staff actually lived on
the premises. It meant
that families were entirely dependent on
their bosses for work, money and accommodation,
even if that accommodation was sumptuous compared to the
neighbours.
After the mass move to cities took place workers were forced to live in
increasing squalor with larger and larger families sharing smaller and
smaller spaces. Conditions were ripe for the spread of disease and
eventually some employers decided to move their factories - and their
workforce - out of the city and back to the countryside where they
believed everyone would benefit.
Social reformers such as the Quaker Cadburys created who new towns on
the outskirts of cities. But at least the Cadbury family retained the
name of the local village where their new town was created -
Bournville. Cloth manufacturer Sit Titus Salt was so proud of his
changes when he moved his factory and workforce out of the slums of
Bradford that he renamed his new settlement after himself as well as
the local river - Saltaire.
Whether an employer built homes in the city or created whole new
settlements it left the workforce themselves with little choice about
their own futures. They
were bound to live in their employer's property and by his rules or
face losing everything.